${beta}$- Eucryptite (LiAlSiO4) is a potential electrolyte for Li- ion battery due to its high Li- ion conductivity and very small volume thermal expansion coefficient. We have performed ab-initio molecular dynamics simulations of $beta$- Eucryptite to study the origin of high temperature superionic phase transition in this material. The simulations are able to provide the microscopic understanding of the one -dimensional superionicity that occurs along the hexagonal c-axis and is associated with the order-disorder nature of the phase transition. The Li ionic conductivity is found to enhance due to the anisotropic negative thermal expansion along hexagonal c-axis. The introduction of defects in the crystal like, excess Li in interstitial sites, Li vacancy and O vacancy are found to significantly increase the ionic conductivity and hence might reduce the temperature of the superionic phase transition in this material.
We have investigated the structural sequence of the high-pressure phases of silicon and germanium. We have focussed on the cd->beta-tin->Imma->sh phase transitions. We have used the plane-wave pseudopotential approach to the density-functional theory implemented within the Vienna ab-initio simulation package (VASP). We have determined the equilibrium properties of each structure and the values of the critical parameters including a hysteresis effect at the phase transitions. The order of the phase transitions has been obtained alternatively from the pressure dependence of the enthalpy and of the internal structure parameters. The commonly used tangent construction is shown to be very unreliable. Our calculations identify a first-order phase transition from the cd to the beta-tin and from the Imma to the sh phase, and they indicate the possibility of a second-order phase-transition from the beta-tin to the Imma phase. Finally, we have derived the enthalpy barriers between the phases.
Ab-initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the relative stability of anatase and rutile polymorphs of TiO2 were carried using all-electron atomic orbitals methods with local density approximation (LDA). The rutile phase exhibited a moderate margin of stability of ~ 3 meV relative to the anatase phase in pristine material. From computational analysis of the formation energies of Si, Al, Fe and F dopants of various charge states across different Fermi level energies in anatase and in rutile, it was found that the cationic dopants are most stable in Ti substitutional lattice positions while formation energy is minimised for F- doping in interstitial positions. All dopants were found to considerably stabilise anatase relative to the rutile phase, suggesting the anatase to rutile phase transformation is inhibited in such systems with the dopants ranked F>Si>Fe>Al in order of anatase stabilisation strength. Al and Fe dopants were found to act as shallow acceptors with charge compensation achieved through the formation of mobile carriers rather than the formation of anion vacancies.
We investigated the structural and dynamical properties of a tetrahedrally coordinated crystalline ice from first principles based on density functional theory within the generalized gradient approximation with the projected augmented wave method. First, we report the structural behaviour of ice at finite temperatures based on the analysis of radial distribution functions obtained by molecular dynamics simulations. The results show how the ordering of the hydrogen bonding breaks down in the tetrahedral network of ice with entropy increase in agreement with the neutron diffraction data. We also calculated the phonon spectra of ice in a 3x1x1 supercell by using the direct method. So far, due to the direct method used in this calculation, the phonon spectra is obtained without taking into account the effect of polarization arising from dipole-dipole interactions of water molecules which is expected to yield the splitting of longitudinal and transverse optic modes at the Gamma-point. The calculated longitudinal acoustic velocities from the initial slopes of the acoustic mode is in a reasonable agreement with the neutron scatering data. The analysis of the vibrational density of states shows the existence of a boson peak at low energy of translational region a characteristic common to amorphous systems.
We report studies on the vibrational and elastic behavior of lithium oxide, Li2O around its superionic transition temperature. Phonon frequencies calculated using the ab-initio and empirical potential model are in excellent agreement with the reported experimental data. Further, volume dependence of phonon dispersion relation has been calculated, which indicates softening of zone boundary transverse acoustic phonon mode along [110] at volume corresponding to the superionic transition in Li2O. The instability of phonon mode could be a precursor leading to the dynamical disorder of the lithium sub lattice. Empirical potential model calculations have been carried out to deduce the probable direction of lithium diffusion by constructing a super cell consisting of 12000 atoms. The barrier energy for lithium ion diffusion from one lattice site to another at ambient and elevated temperature has been computed. Barrier energy considerations along various symmetry directions indicate that [001] is the most favourable direction for lithium diffusion in the fast ion phase. This result corroborates our observation of dynamical instability in the transverse mode along (110) wave vector. Using molecular dynamics simulations we have studied the temperature variation of elastic constants, which are important to the high-temperature stability of lithium oxide.
Certain alumino-silicates display exotic properties enabled by their framework structure made of corner-sharing tetrahedral rigid units. Using textit{in situ} diamond-anvil cell x-ray diffraction (XRD), we study the pressure-induced transformation of $beta$ eucryptite, a prototypical alumino-silicate. $beta$ eucryptite undergoes a phase transformation at moderate pressures, but the atomic structure of the new phase has not yet been reported. Based on density functional theory stability studies and Rietveld analysis of XRD patterns, we find that the pressure-stabilized phase belongs to the Pna2$_1$ space group. Furthermore, we discover two other possible pressure-stabilized polymorphs, P1c1 and Pca2$_1$.
Baltej Singh
,Mayanak K. Gupta
,Ranjan Mittal
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(2018)
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"Ab-initio Molecular Dynamics study of 1-D Superionic Conduction and Phase Transition in b{beta}- Eucryptite"
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R Mittal
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